“The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die” by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay

“The aunt who wouldn’t die” by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, as the name suggests is about an aunt, or pishima in Bengali, who everyone thinks is dead, but for one member of the household, the new daughter-in-law, Somlata, to whom the aunt comes to every now and then as a ghost, and tries to scare her.
But what does she actually wants?
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This book is like a light, fluffy conundrum of a lot of things all at once, the difficulties of living in a joint family, the struggles of widows and the bahus of the house, the romance of a newly married couple and the ghost of an old aunt reluctant to part away with her belongings, a perfect mix that catches the essence of an Indian household in its true sense.
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Reading the book reminded me of the books that I used to read as a kid, small pocketbook versions, with big fonts and folklore that leaves you with a mushy feeling of having read something wholesome. Although the story is simple and the narration devoid of any hullabaloo of fancy prose, the tale itself brings a warmth to the reader’s heart, like soaking in the sun on a winter afternoon.
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A light yet poignant tale of women from three different generations of a family, trying to maintain the household and uplift it, amidst societal ‘laws’, in their own capacities.
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Thank you @bee.books for this beautiful book, in exchange for an honest opinion.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: translated, indian-literature, bengali-literature, culture, mystery